different between spear vs fork

English

Etymology

From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-Germanic *speru (compare West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spj?r), related to *sparrô (compare Middle Dutch sparre (“rafter”), Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”), sperra (“rafter, beam”)), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (compare Latin sparus (“short spear”), Albanian ferrë (“thorn, thornbush”)). See park.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sp???(?)/
• (Canada, US) IPA^(key): /sp??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

spear (plural spears)

1. A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
2. (now chiefly historical) A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 187:

     Two of the four spears came directly from Lady Margaret's staff. One was her great-nephew Maurice St John […].

3. A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
4. (ice hockey) An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
5. (wrestling) In professional wrestling, a running tackle in which the wrestler's shoulder is driven into the opponent's midsection.
6. A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
7. The feather of a horse.
8. The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
9. A long, thin strip from a vegetable.

   asparagus and broccoli spears

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• assegai, assagai, assagaie, assagay, assegay, azagaia, hassagay, hassaguay, zagaie, zagaye
• atlatl
• bayonet
• harpoon
• javelin
• joust
• lance
• pike
• spit, used to grill food on fire
• woomera

Verb

spear (third-person singular simple present spears, present participle spearing, simple past and past participle speared)

1. (transitive) To pierce with a spear.
2. (transitive, by extension) To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object; to make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.
   • 2003, Stan Fischler, Shirley Fischler, Who's who in Hockey

     Former teammate Derek Sanderson recalls that Maki hit Ted from behind as Green was clearing the puck from the Boston zone. Green turned to knock Maki down, but Maki speared him as he rose from the ice.

3. (gridiron football) To tackle an opponent by ramming into them with one's helmet.
4. (intransitive) To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.

Translations

Adjective

spear (not comparable)

1. Male.

   a spear counterpart

   • 2018, A Very English Scandal (TV series) (episode 1)

     When I was young, I was so desperate I'd go looking on the spear side.

2. Pertaining to male family members.

   the spear side of the family

Antonyms

• distaff

Anagrams

• Asper, Earps, Pears, Peras, RESPA, Rapes, Spera, apers, apres, après, aprés, as per, asper, pares, parse, pears, prase, presa, præs., rapes, reaps, sarpe, spare

Middle English

Noun

spear

1. Alternative form of spere (“spear”)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian spere, spiri, from Proto-Germanic *speru.

Noun

spear c (plural spearen, diminutive spearke)

1. spear

Further reading

• “spear”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /f??k/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??k/
• "a fork"
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furk? (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ?eafel, ?eafle (“fork”), from Old English.

In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *??erk(?)-, *??erg(?)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).

Noun

fork (plural forks)

1. A pronged tool having a long straight handle, used for digging, lifting, throwing etc.

   Synonym: pitchfork

2. A pronged tool for use in the garden; a smaller hand fork for weeding etc., or larger for turning over the soil.
3. (obsolete) A gallows.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Joseph Butler to this entry?)

4. A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting.
5. A tuning fork.
6. An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
7. One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

   • a thunderbolt with three forks.

8. A point where a waterway, such as a river, splits and goes two (or more) different directions.
9. (figuratively) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
10. (chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
12. (computer science) A splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process executing parts of the same program.
13. (software) The splitting of a software development effort into two or more separate projects, especially in free and open-source software.
14. (software) Any of the software projects resulting from such a split.

15. (cryptocurrencies, by extension) A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
16. (Britain) The crotch. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
17. (colloquial) A forklift.

18. The set of blades of a forklift, on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
19. (cycling, motorcycling) In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.

20. The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

    Synonyms: swell, pommel

Derived terms

Related terms

• denture
• trident, a three-pronged spear somewhat resembling a pitchfork

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: forku
• ? Dutch: fork
• ? Japanese: ???? (f?ku)
• ? Kannada: ?????? (ph?rk)
• ? Korean: ?? (pokeu)
• ? Maori: paoka
• ? Tamil: ?????? (p?rk)
• ? Telugu: ?????? (ph?rk)

Translations

Verb

fork (third-person singular simple present forks, present participle forking, simple past and past participle forked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To divide into two or more branches.

2. (transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns

     forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart

3. (computer science) To spawn a new child process in some sense duplicating the existing process.
4. (computer science) To split a (software) project into several projects.
5. (computer science) To split a (software) distributed version control repository
6. (Britain) To kick someone in the crotch.
7. To shoot into blades, as corn does.

   • I have known them couched up a Yard thick cover’d with an Hair-cloth and ?tirred only once a day, the Malt?er being always careful to throw the frozen out?ides into the middle till the Corn begin to fork and warm in the Couch; after which time if it be not laid too thin, it will not ea?ily freeze.

8. Euphemistic form of fuck.

Derived terms

• (computer science: spawn a new child process): fork bomb
• fork off
• fork out
• fork over

Translations

See also

• knife
• spoon

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• forcque

Noun

fork (plural forks)

1. (mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.

Verb

fork (third-person singular simple present forks, present participle forking, simple past and past participle forked)

1. (mining, transitive) To bale a shaft dry.

Anagrams

• Korf

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse forkr (“boathook”), from Latin furca (“fork, pitchfork”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?rk/, [f????]

Noun

fork c (singular definite forken, plural indefinite forke)

1. (two-pronged) fork, pitchfork

Inflection

Dutch

Etymology

From English fork in the computer science sense. Doublet of vork (“fork”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?rk/

Noun

fork f (plural forks, diminutive forkje n)

1. (computer science) A fork, splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process executing parts of the same program.

Synonyms

• afsplitsing

Anagrams

• korf

Middle English

Noun

fork

1. Alternative form of forke